cabritpop

This article doesn't seem surprising at all. Even if you have medical insurance it has limits. Most doctors just see dollar signs $ if you get a serious illness, in my opinion. They don't give a damn as long as somebody is paying.

It's a short article so i'll paste it---

source:http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/200...runc_sys.shtml
2 February 2005
Half Of All Bankruptcies Caused By Medical Bills

<<removed because displaying article may break copyright>>

Manc

that's obviously bollocks.
George Bush said in the presidential debate "Our health care system is the envy of the world"

He said it so it must be true.

fatbrit

Manc is correct. Outside America they have socialized healthcare which is very inferior. If you can find a doctor to give you a coronary bypass when you need one, s/he'll do it with a used boxcutter and they'll hit you on the head with a brick because they don't know about anesthesia. Recovery will be at the soup kitchen as they don’t have any hospitals.

Muswell Hill

I had never heard of the term 'socialised medicine' before moving here. In any other country I have ever lived in there was either no name to it, or it was termed "national health service' or something similar.
For some reason, anything that is to do with society or it being 'social' in America is a dirty word.

So many people here can't believe that in the UK all medical treatment is free at the point of delivery and priscriptions are about 7 quid. I always get the "but aren't the waiting lists years and years long" question. For some things yes, but I never ever had to worry about losing my home and all of my possessions to recover from an illness. Most Americans I have met just accept that losing everything, is a real and genuine possibility if they get sick.

Again, I will say that although the NHS is not perfect, I have had nothing but excellent treatment on it.

On another point, how many people go and see their old UK dentist when in the UK? My one went private about 10 years ago and will still see me for about 15 quid for a checkup?

ladylisa

I was talking to a US paramedic/nurse and he said about the NHS being socialised care, I hadnt heard of that term either. Actually he was very interesting he said that many US doctors are leaving the proffession because the treatment they issue to patients is dictated by the Insurance companies and has little to do with the patients needs. Also the fear of malpractice suits means that in the US they will not try revolutionary proceedures, hence he said that in the UK we are lucky that we benefit from all the latest techniques and medicines.

I know there are some moaners about the NHS and it does have it faults but god arent we lucky to have it. A couple of my family wouldnt be around without it as they would not have been able to afford the costs here.

nun

I've had experience with the NHS and US healthcare systems and I've had good treatment from both. Americans' first reaction to anything foreign is that the US version must be better and if it smacks of a governmnet system it is always characterized as costly and inefficient. Working in a hospital I can state that the per patient expenditure in the US is about twice that as in the UK and the life expectancy is the same and the US has a worse infant death rate. So while both systems provide good heathcare in my opinion the US system is worse because it is more expensive and doen't cover the entire population.

Bob

Still on the NHS mine, £12 for a checkup, clean and a filling if needed, £2 if I want drugs so I don't squeal like a pig, well worth being a dribbling fool for though

adeshell

Hence doing away with Social Security...

NC Penguin

Hmm. Interesting comments. Did you read the Dentistry thread from the other day?





NC Penguin

Elvira

One of my friends is a pharmacist; she says that patients - particularly the elderly - often ask her "which of these prescriptions do I really need and which can I do without?" Given the 'choice' between diabetes and osteoporosis, a woman may perhaps only treat the former, because it is more immediatelly life-threatening. But a hip-fracture can easily kill someone in their 80s.

It'll be interesting to see how all this much-touted Medicare prescription benefit will play out over the next few years. From what I can tell it is confusion all 'round and most patients won't see any real difference in the (obscene) amounts they have to pay for drugs.

Of course Bush would not want to offend the pharmaceutical companies by imposing any kind of reigning in of drug costs. How do they say in Texas - "you have to dance with them what brought you"...

As for teeth, I'd love to go back to my dentist in the UK, but I wouldn't want to spend my precious time back home sitting in a dentist's chair!